Gen 5, Part 5: Behind the Scenes!
Nov. 19th, 2014 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beanstalk_simsI like rambling on about things I do for the chapters, and for some reason, you guys like reading them, so here! Have some EXTRA and POTENTIALLY INTERESTING information about the latest Wrongway chapter - Gen 5, Part 5: Shelter!
Will contain spoilers if you haven't read it yet. :)
Let's start with the newspapers, and get a better look at them:
I actually did the first newspaper second, and started with the second one. Why? I have no idea. Logic escaped me, I guess. As for the unimportant stories, they're made up of recycled pictures I already had in this exampl. The house belonged to my simself in my old OWBC, the vampire was an entry for Let's Build It! on Boolprop, and Julien Cooke lounging at the bottom there was from my "Just for Fun" 'hood.
The picture of the "hotel" (read: Hans Trapdoor Corp from Downtown) is also recycled, from an old BTS when I was showing you guys what staging Belladonna looked like. It got its name from the writer of the textbook I was leaning on at the time - a textbook on Learning theory.
I was making these newspapers as a form of procrastination. Shhh!
The second headline! I actually staged the little protest on the front cover. That's my simself in the back there, with the fancy hair and glasses. Everyone knows students love a good protest, right? ;) To be honest, she just showed up with the rest of the extras. And I probably should have downloaded some of the protest signs extracted from TS3. Hopefully it looked protest-y enough.
All of those protestors with their fists in the air are doing the "bang on wall" animation from the AL box, in case you wanted to know.
The picture at the bottom for the flower ad is from an old Boolprop's Next Top Model, and that Eternal Sunshine pic? It's actually Maddie & Tank. I staged them in "Storybook" clothes awhile ago, as I was messing around to see if I could create the asthetics I wanted to use for a Wronglands segment I later didn't use, and they were my test subjects.
Jessica Peterson, Armand DeBateau's ex-wife, and her reality TV show were staged purely for the paper. I imagine "Flash to Trash" somewhat like a Trailer Park Challenge. Viewers would love that - seeing the disgraced wife of the mayor living on a trailer park.
I couldn't think of a better headline for Kimberly's arrest and that made me sad. But I don't think I did too badly, in retrospect. Also, someone asked if my simself is one of the cops, and in a way, yes. That dude with the black hair on the right? Is my simself as a dude. The woman cop is Rob's simself gender-flipped. I thought my extras would be less recognisable that way, but apparently not!
Samantha's disappearance (and sudden reappearance!) should come up in a later chapter, possibly even the next one (I need to look at my plans again). And that's all I'm saying about that.
Again, the Wrongway pic from the bottom is recycled. I figured seeing as Lavender's been all over the front page with her death, the media would be somewhat interested in the family's background, hence why Rose is on the cover.
And Jessica Peterson again, this time boasting about her success. There was one more piece to Jessica's little story:
The part where Jessica loses her marbles/behaves badly in public/does something else tabloids seem to love. I should have organised my papers better, but oh well. Broken down Jessica never made it to the front page.
I want to stress that the Belladonna Standard is a tabloid. In the UK, our tabloids are "red-tops" (so the Sun, the Star & the Mirror), hence why I gave the paper a red banner. Not exactly award-winning journalism!
Anyway, enough about papers, let's talk about DeBateau:
There's something about Armand DeBateau's face that gave me the "douchebag politican" vibe. It might be his jaw, or his determined mouth, I don't know. He just looks like he belongs in politics.
I say "douchebag" but I don't know. I kind of feel like the guys in power (say for example, Obama) try their hardest, but no matter what they do, they'll upset someone. So I kind of wanted Armand to feel that way. He's making the protesters happy, which will lead to quieter streets and hopefully less violence, but instead, he's alienated a lot of the population of Belladonna.
You're damned if you, and you're damned if you don't.
Also, I'm aware that in the real world, a Mayor couldn't make radical new rules. But this is my world dammit, and he can!
It's just a shame about who gets affected by these rules.
It was always my intention to have Tara fall for one of the Wrongway lads, though I was kind of hoping she wouldn't fall for someone so distant and unrecognisable. However, she did fall for a green sim, so I have to cut her some slack - she added a bit more spice to the storyline, afterall!
And yeah, Armand's a bit of a meanie here. It is Tara's choice who she dates, and despite the fact he's green, Dimitri isn't forced by the laws to move to an institute. We all know that. But it will still be interesting to see how this influences the events I have planned, right?
And all of this supernatural business gives Lee something to do, especially while Hex is so unreponsive. Here's a fun fact about this scene - the red-headed dude is Ani-Mei's simself gender-flipped! Probably should have mentioned her in the credits...
Anyway, the story is actually supposed to be about these guys:
The funeral was an important scene because it sort of tied up some things, and started new things. Like moving to Belladonna, something I've been planning this whole time. I knew I didn't want Maddie to end up in Strangetown, as I was getting bored of the empty desert backdrop, so I'm really excited to be able to use Belladonna.
Plus I could use the funeral to develop Maddie & Tank - he lost his mother as a child, and so ultimately, he knows what she's going through. I think understanding is an important part of their relationship, and realising just how similar they are.
And I get to bring Mark back into it, which will be interesting to explore. Once I knew I was going to kill off Lavender, I knew I wanted to bring Mark back at the funeral.
My Dad always says this odd thing whenever he talks about my Mum. My parents are divorced, but my Dad says he'll always love my Mum, as the mother of his children. And that's kind of what inspired me to have Mark show up to Lavender's funeral. Mark was no longer in love with Lavender, but he wanted to pay his respects to a woman he greatly admired, the mother of his children.
Plus it helps him to get back in touch with his kids. Of course I couldn't have him on his own, though, he had to come with a new wife and a child!
The funeral also became the foundation for moments like these, where the family finally acknowledge and address their problems, and talk to each other. A little too late maybe, but mistakes are there to be learnt from.
And naturally, this was going to be the hardest for Leda.
I tried very hard to get inside Leda's mind, to work out exactly what she must be going through, and this was the most reasonable conclusion I could draw - immense guilt and regret, to the point where Leda won't forgive herself, even if everyone else already has.
Also, I would have prefered this picture if Buck hadn't smiled during it. He does like to ruin shots with his smile, bless him.
I do like Buck, though. I like all of the Grunt brothers, and I love how different they are. I imagine they all have the same sense of humour, a dry sense of humour, usually sarcastic or blunt. I feel Tank is more reluctant than the other two to use humour, as he's the oldest, and the one who had to bear most of his father's pressures in order to protect the younger two - particularly Buck. So that's why I imagine Tank rather uptight and hesitant to relax - although Maddie's doing quite well to change that, no? :)
Ripp's the wild one, obviously. He did the opposite of Tank, and rocked the boat so much his father is often annoyed with him. I sort of feel that's Ripp's way of getting attention off of Buzz, otherwise his focus would be on Tank constantly, with the other two brothers ignored. Also, Ripp and Jill is something that happened during one of my playthroughs of Strangetown, and I loved it so much I put them together nearly every time now. Of course, that comes with its own problems!
And then there's Buck. He's quieter than the others, but he's not afraid to speak his mind. Tries his best in every situation, more sensitive...so Buck takes after their mother, I imagine. I also feel Buck is overlooked because he's got two brothers who take up most of their father's attention. But again, I think Buck quite likes the quiet life.
Anyway. Enough about that. I could literally talk about the Grunt brothers, their upbringing and the potential impacts on their characters and personalties for hours. Psych student, it's what I do! :)
It was about damn time I got this little girl into the story! She's already a child in-game. Typically, she got the Wrongway nose - that hooked nose that Orlando brought in back in generation three and is still with us. Danielle's the beginning of a third generation with that nose. Although, I'm starting to like it. It's kind of symbolic - the Wrongway nose!
I think Danielle's the first baby in awhile without brown eyes, too.
Anyway, I skipped over her birth and baby stage because it's bloody hard to restage those. Trying to get an infant that matches perfectly is really hard, so I just jumped over it. That's why this update moved forwards quite a lot - also I wanted to make progress. The last few updates have covered maybe a handful of days? So it's time to kick things up a notch.
That's all I have for this time, but I'll leave you with this teaser for the next chapter:
Will contain spoilers if you haven't read it yet. :)
Let's start with the newspapers, and get a better look at them:
I actually did the first newspaper second, and started with the second one. Why? I have no idea. Logic escaped me, I guess. As for the unimportant stories, they're made up of recycled pictures I already had in this exampl. The house belonged to my simself in my old OWBC, the vampire was an entry for Let's Build It! on Boolprop, and Julien Cooke lounging at the bottom there was from my "Just for Fun" 'hood.
The picture of the "hotel" (read: Hans Trapdoor Corp from Downtown) is also recycled, from an old BTS when I was showing you guys what staging Belladonna looked like. It got its name from the writer of the textbook I was leaning on at the time - a textbook on Learning theory.
I was making these newspapers as a form of procrastination. Shhh!
The second headline! I actually staged the little protest on the front cover. That's my simself in the back there, with the fancy hair and glasses. Everyone knows students love a good protest, right? ;) To be honest, she just showed up with the rest of the extras. And I probably should have downloaded some of the protest signs extracted from TS3. Hopefully it looked protest-y enough.
All of those protestors with their fists in the air are doing the "bang on wall" animation from the AL box, in case you wanted to know.
The picture at the bottom for the flower ad is from an old Boolprop's Next Top Model, and that Eternal Sunshine pic? It's actually Maddie & Tank. I staged them in "Storybook" clothes awhile ago, as I was messing around to see if I could create the asthetics I wanted to use for a Wronglands segment I later didn't use, and they were my test subjects.
Jessica Peterson, Armand DeBateau's ex-wife, and her reality TV show were staged purely for the paper. I imagine "Flash to Trash" somewhat like a Trailer Park Challenge. Viewers would love that - seeing the disgraced wife of the mayor living on a trailer park.
I couldn't think of a better headline for Kimberly's arrest and that made me sad. But I don't think I did too badly, in retrospect. Also, someone asked if my simself is one of the cops, and in a way, yes. That dude with the black hair on the right? Is my simself as a dude. The woman cop is Rob's simself gender-flipped. I thought my extras would be less recognisable that way, but apparently not!
Samantha's disappearance (and sudden reappearance!) should come up in a later chapter, possibly even the next one (I need to look at my plans again). And that's all I'm saying about that.
Again, the Wrongway pic from the bottom is recycled. I figured seeing as Lavender's been all over the front page with her death, the media would be somewhat interested in the family's background, hence why Rose is on the cover.
And Jessica Peterson again, this time boasting about her success. There was one more piece to Jessica's little story:
The part where Jessica loses her marbles/behaves badly in public/does something else tabloids seem to love. I should have organised my papers better, but oh well. Broken down Jessica never made it to the front page.
I want to stress that the Belladonna Standard is a tabloid. In the UK, our tabloids are "red-tops" (so the Sun, the Star & the Mirror), hence why I gave the paper a red banner. Not exactly award-winning journalism!
Anyway, enough about papers, let's talk about DeBateau:
There's something about Armand DeBateau's face that gave me the "douchebag politican" vibe. It might be his jaw, or his determined mouth, I don't know. He just looks like he belongs in politics.
I say "douchebag" but I don't know. I kind of feel like the guys in power (say for example, Obama) try their hardest, but no matter what they do, they'll upset someone. So I kind of wanted Armand to feel that way. He's making the protesters happy, which will lead to quieter streets and hopefully less violence, but instead, he's alienated a lot of the population of Belladonna.
You're damned if you, and you're damned if you don't.
Also, I'm aware that in the real world, a Mayor couldn't make radical new rules. But this is my world dammit, and he can!
It's just a shame about who gets affected by these rules.
It was always my intention to have Tara fall for one of the Wrongway lads, though I was kind of hoping she wouldn't fall for someone so distant and unrecognisable. However, she did fall for a green sim, so I have to cut her some slack - she added a bit more spice to the storyline, afterall!
And yeah, Armand's a bit of a meanie here. It is Tara's choice who she dates, and despite the fact he's green, Dimitri isn't forced by the laws to move to an institute. We all know that. But it will still be interesting to see how this influences the events I have planned, right?
And all of this supernatural business gives Lee something to do, especially while Hex is so unreponsive. Here's a fun fact about this scene - the red-headed dude is Ani-Mei's simself gender-flipped! Probably should have mentioned her in the credits...
Anyway, the story is actually supposed to be about these guys:
The funeral was an important scene because it sort of tied up some things, and started new things. Like moving to Belladonna, something I've been planning this whole time. I knew I didn't want Maddie to end up in Strangetown, as I was getting bored of the empty desert backdrop, so I'm really excited to be able to use Belladonna.
Plus I could use the funeral to develop Maddie & Tank - he lost his mother as a child, and so ultimately, he knows what she's going through. I think understanding is an important part of their relationship, and realising just how similar they are.
And I get to bring Mark back into it, which will be interesting to explore. Once I knew I was going to kill off Lavender, I knew I wanted to bring Mark back at the funeral.
My Dad always says this odd thing whenever he talks about my Mum. My parents are divorced, but my Dad says he'll always love my Mum, as the mother of his children. And that's kind of what inspired me to have Mark show up to Lavender's funeral. Mark was no longer in love with Lavender, but he wanted to pay his respects to a woman he greatly admired, the mother of his children.
Plus it helps him to get back in touch with his kids. Of course I couldn't have him on his own, though, he had to come with a new wife and a child!
The funeral also became the foundation for moments like these, where the family finally acknowledge and address their problems, and talk to each other. A little too late maybe, but mistakes are there to be learnt from.
And naturally, this was going to be the hardest for Leda.
I tried very hard to get inside Leda's mind, to work out exactly what she must be going through, and this was the most reasonable conclusion I could draw - immense guilt and regret, to the point where Leda won't forgive herself, even if everyone else already has.
Also, I would have prefered this picture if Buck hadn't smiled during it. He does like to ruin shots with his smile, bless him.
I do like Buck, though. I like all of the Grunt brothers, and I love how different they are. I imagine they all have the same sense of humour, a dry sense of humour, usually sarcastic or blunt. I feel Tank is more reluctant than the other two to use humour, as he's the oldest, and the one who had to bear most of his father's pressures in order to protect the younger two - particularly Buck. So that's why I imagine Tank rather uptight and hesitant to relax - although Maddie's doing quite well to change that, no? :)
Ripp's the wild one, obviously. He did the opposite of Tank, and rocked the boat so much his father is often annoyed with him. I sort of feel that's Ripp's way of getting attention off of Buzz, otherwise his focus would be on Tank constantly, with the other two brothers ignored. Also, Ripp and Jill is something that happened during one of my playthroughs of Strangetown, and I loved it so much I put them together nearly every time now. Of course, that comes with its own problems!
And then there's Buck. He's quieter than the others, but he's not afraid to speak his mind. Tries his best in every situation, more sensitive...so Buck takes after their mother, I imagine. I also feel Buck is overlooked because he's got two brothers who take up most of their father's attention. But again, I think Buck quite likes the quiet life.
Anyway. Enough about that. I could literally talk about the Grunt brothers, their upbringing and the potential impacts on their characters and personalties for hours. Psych student, it's what I do! :)
It was about damn time I got this little girl into the story! She's already a child in-game. Typically, she got the Wrongway nose - that hooked nose that Orlando brought in back in generation three and is still with us. Danielle's the beginning of a third generation with that nose. Although, I'm starting to like it. It's kind of symbolic - the Wrongway nose!
I think Danielle's the first baby in awhile without brown eyes, too.
Anyway, I skipped over her birth and baby stage because it's bloody hard to restage those. Trying to get an infant that matches perfectly is really hard, so I just jumped over it. That's why this update moved forwards quite a lot - also I wanted to make progress. The last few updates have covered maybe a handful of days? So it's time to kick things up a notch.
That's all I have for this time, but I'll leave you with this teaser for the next chapter:
